Category: Economy

Americans quitting jobs at higher rates is a sign of a strong, growing economy. It may not sound like it, but if people are quitting one job to move to something better, and/or get a better offer than where they are now, it is accompanied by an increase up to 3.5% in wages this year.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/americans-continue-quit-jobs-droves-233210503.html

From the article: “if you track non-supervisory wage growth alongside the quits rate in the food services business, you get a pretty good sense of where wages are going — up. In October, average hourly earnings for all employees rose 3.1% and for non-supervisory workers wages rose 3.2% over last year. These were the highest readings since the spring of 2009, when wages were on the way down as the post-crisis recession deepened.”

So the guy who is slapping beef on the grill at Burger King while he’s in cooking school at a local college or trade school, with dreams of opening his own burger and hot dog joint, quits because he got a better offer and can still go to school.

Hey, there’s a local Dog ‘n’ Suds for sale not too far from where I live, if anyone is interested. The owner wants to retire and the people who work there stay there. It’s one of the few left from the old-timey drive-in where you ate hot dogs and fries in your car with a tray hung on the window. If they ever bring back drive-in movies, someone please let me know?

But that’s not all. Despite the need to obscure the message in doublespeak like Yellin used to do, Fed Chairman Powell’s speech at the Economic Club of New York last week indicates that “interest rates are just below” the level that is neutral for the economy.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/powells-comments-mattered-week-205435592.html

This inferred to investors that there is a possibly less aggressive path for interest rate hikes next year. Does this matter to you? Yes, it does. Look at the interest rate charged on your credit card bill. If you keep the old ones, go back a few years and look at those rates. They’ve creeped up somewhat in a sneaky way.

Obviously, over time, things can change. We’re in a stable growth period now and we need to stay there. If economic growth now is stable enough for people to change jobs with confidence, we want it to stay that way.

 

 

Since the weekend is coming up, I thought a slow cooker recipe might be a good idea, because there is nothing better than going out to shovel snow and coming back into a warm house, only to catch the scent of BBQ beans or a good chicken casserole wafting through the late afternoon hour. Also, I thought Aysel could use another slow cooker item in her repertoire.

This recipe comes from the kitchens of Betty Crocker, and I have used it many, many times. You’ll find that substituting your own favorite spicy flavors for the original recipe works quite well. The full recipe makes 4 to 6 servings

Here we go:

2 cans 15 oz+ each of great northern beans, drained and rinsed

2 can 15 oz each of black beans, drained and rinsed

1 large onion chopped (amt. equal to 1 cup)

1 cup BBQ sauce

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon ground mustard

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons of chili powder

1 ring (1 lb to 1.25 lb) fully cooked smoke sausage

Mix all the ingredients except for the sausage together in the crockpot, then place the sausage ring on top of the beans.  The heat from the beans and BBQ sauce will steam the sausage nicely.

Cover and cook on low setting for 5 to 6 hours. Should provide at least 4 servings, and up to 6.

Here’s the best part: you don’t have to stick strictly to this recipe, ever.  I don’t. Instead of the GN and black beans, I use beans canned in chili sauce, a mild chorizo sausage cooked ahead to add spiciness, whole grain spicy mustard instead of the dry mustard, and some chopped garlic along with the onions. I don’t use additional brown sugar or chili powder because the BBQ sauce (a commercial brand) has enough sugar in it.  Whatever variation you like is okay.

Also, I put chopped onions on the beans when I put this stuff on a plate. Add some cornbread to it, plus some good dill pickles and radishes and other such comestibles, and a favorite beverage. A good cole slaw goes well with this, and apple pie with ice cream is always good for dessert.

Instead of posting “Cooking” on  Thursday this week, I”m putting out this recipe in time for you to get the ingredients together and make this side dish.  Besides, you already have my grandma’s chopped apple cake recipe and stovetop dressing in the box takes about 2 minutes to fix, but add some chopped onion to it to bump it up a notch.

Yes, I am goofing off.

I love this dish, because while it can be bought at the store if you’re in a hurry, it is very easy to make from scratch. Fresh cranberries are everywhere now, and if you want to use them to decorate your Christmas/holiday tree, you just string them with a darning needle threaded with heavy duty sewing thread, available at a fabric shop. You can also string popcorn with the cranberries or just put it on its own strings.

When the holidays are over, put the strings of cranberries and popcorn outside for the birds and squirrels, or take the stuff  off the strings and put the berries and stale popcorn in spots where you know the critters will pick them up. Make the squirrels happy.

This 2004 version comes from myrecipes.com:

1/2 cup orange marmalade

2 tablespoons grated orange rind (zest is the more up-to-date term)

1 cup fresh orange juice (about 2 oranges)

1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar (to taste)

1 (12-ounce) package fresh cranberries

Combine marmalade and orange zest, and set aside.

Combine juice and sugar in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Add cranberries; return to boil. Reduce heat; simmer for 10 minutes or until cranberries pop and sauce begins to thicken. Remove from heat; stir in marmalade mixture.

Cover and chill in front of a TV while watching Macy’s parade or the ‘Frosty the Snowman’ cartoon.

N.B.: Instead of ‘grated orange rind’, the more up to date version is orange zest, which is the color part of orange peel. If you don’t have a microplane to produce orange peel zest, a kitchen grater is fine. Just do not take the grater deep into the white part of the peel. The orange part is where the flavor is, about 1/16 inch thick.  If you make orange juice from the oranges, then throw the pulp into this,  also.

And have a pleasant and Happy Thanksgiving.

The subject is soup. Soup – the stuff that Immortals dream of.

Well, they just wish they could cook as well as mortals, which is why the Immortals always show up with an empty bowl and a spoon and that sad look in their eyes.

Soup of any kind is good. Onion, beef-based veggie, chicken noodles w/veggies (and I do mean noodles!), cream of potato, cream of mushroom.

So here’s a good and simple recipe for onion soup:

One onion per person – Spanish/yellow onions hold up well in this

Beef broth

Salt and pepper to taste, thyme and oregano, plus a bay leaf or two

Red or white wine is optional, but you want to make soup, not get stewed.

Kleenex

Croutons, sliced baguette and cheese (Swiss, gouda, mozzarella – it’s all good!)

Peel the onion the easy way: cut it in half, pull off the skin and outer layer. Slice each half on the mandolin if you have one; if not, then just do a coarse chop. One onion should serve one to two people.

Put the sliced onion into a pot, add the beef broth to cover. How much beef broth? How hungry are you? One 28 ounce box of broth should suffice for a couple of servings because it will cook down a little. If you want a lot of onion soup (yes, please!!!), add more as you go. The broth and sliced or diced onion cook together, so that the onion can weep tears into the broth to season it, and the broth can throw thyme and oregano at the onion to comfort it. Salt and pepper are to taste, always, and you can throw in a bay leaf or two if you like. The wine addition is optional. I don’t find it necessary, but it’s good with a hot bowl of onion soup with all that melty cheese on top.

It is very okay to cook the onions before you put them into the pot. That’s a personal choice. But it’s also okay to just cook them slowly in the beef broth without sautéing them first.

If you want this for lunch, start after breakfast. If you want it for dinner, start after lunch. Very slow simmer, lowest temp or flame on the burner; put a lid on the pot to keep the broth in the pot. Yes, you are allowed to peek, and test the flavor levels. You can also put this in a slow cooker or Crockpot for 5 to 6 hours on High, or if on Low then 8 to 10 hours.

The croutons you can buy already toasted and ready to use. The baguette slices go on the top of the onion soup, with the cheese (sliced or shredded, your choice) on top of the baguette. To get the nice browning, 1 to 2 minutes in the broiler at 375F to 400F with the door open, or bake it at 375F  for 3 to 5 minutes in the oven, on a tray.  It’s cheese. It gets gooey and melty. It’s good!

The Kleenex is for when you peel the onions the hard way instead of ripping the outermost layer and skin off the bulb, or for when you’re trying to slice them across the bulb by hand.

In my best Julia Child voice: Today, we’re fixing lemon chicken. And cappellini with basil and tomatoes. And an herbed butter to put on your dinner rolls.

Roasted Lemon Chicken:

You need one pre-brined chicken, or brine it yourself, using 1 cup of table salt per gallon of water for 30 to 60 minutes.. If it’s a kosher bird, you don’t need to brine it.

Butterfly the chicken, take out the backbone with kitchen shears and mix these ingredients:

3 tablespoons of lemon zest (use a grater if you don’t have a microplane)

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of sugar

Loosen the skin. Using 2 tablespoons of the mix, spread the lemon zest under the skin, rub it around to coat the bird evenly. Season the bird with salt and pepper. Put it in the cooking pan NOT on a rack.

To make the pan broth, mix these together:

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 cup of water

2 cups of low sodium chicken broth

the remainder of the lemon zest rub

Pour this mixture into the bottom of the pan. Do NOT cover the bird.

Roast in a 475F oven 40 to 45 minutes. (I sometimes prefer a slower oven for chicken to keep it juicy.)

Let the bird rest on your carving board. Pour the pan drippings into a bowl to make a sauce. The sauce is a mixture of pan drippings, a small amount of cornstarch, some butter, and if necessary, additional chicken broth. (Cornstarch will make a clear sauce.)

Herbed butter is easy to make.  You’ll need:

a cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter, softened by sitting out

parsley, chives, thyme, dill

1 teaspoon of kosher salt (sea salt is also okay)

1 teaspoon of lemon juice

some fine ground black pepper

That should be nice on your dinner rolls, especially when it goes oozing down your arm. (Yes, OOZING!)

Cappellini with tomatoes and basil:

1/2 cup olive oil  (Use extra virgin olive oil – higher percentage of beneficial linoleic acid)

2 tablespoons of rough chopped garlic

4 pints of cherry tomatoes

2 teaspoonfuls of fresh thyme

2 teaspoons of salt

1 teaspoon of black pepper

Saute all of that together until the tomatoes are soft.

Julienne a bunch of basil and parsley. (Or put it through the food processor. If you don’t have fresh herbs, dried herbs are just fine!)

Cook the cappellini in fairly salty water with a splash of olive oil to keep it from boiling over.  A per person serving of cappellini is what will fit in the one-inch opening when you put your thumb and index finger into a circle.

Grate some parmesano or asiago (or both) into a big pile on a shallow plate.

Drain the pasta. Add it to the tomatoes and toss it without bruising the tomatoes. (They’re already cooked, so I have no idea how you’d bruise them further.)

Plate it, add the freshly grated cheese, pour yourself a good glass of wine, spread that herbed butter on your bread, and tuck in.

And for afters: fruit and cheese? Ice cream? Cheesecake?

Hey, it’s your house. You decide.

Bon appetit!

Gravy

12 oz bulk pork sausage

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper

3 cups of milk

Those are Pillsbury’s  measurements.  Me? I figure gravy is not a lost art, despite what some unfed Marines may think.

You need a fat and starch to make the roux for the gravy, and the roux is fat, which comes from the pig (or the cow)  and starch, which is flour. The amount of fat (butter, bacon grease, sausage pan drippings) depends on which meat you cook first.

This is supposed to be a cream gravy, so using cornstarch to make a clear au jus gravy is just wrong! You can stretch the gravy with a broth like chicken broth, if necessary,  because milk will burn.

If you cannot find bulk pork sausage, then buy the patties and crumble them up in to the bulk form. They’re already seasoned in most brands, so pick your favorite brand, unless you have a really cool seasoning of your own.

You cook the sausage to render the fat, then remove it from the pan. (This is for the benefit of people who buy canned gravy. Poor things!) If there is not enough fat from the sausage, add some bacon grease, about 1 tablespoonful (or a soup spoonful if you’re feeding a crowd), and let it melt.

Make sure you include all pan scrapings in this, too. That is flavor. You do not throw out flavor. That is blasphemy!!!!

Next, stir the flour a little at a time, into the fat. It should thicken enough to produce a little under a quarter cup of this roux. Add the milk to it slowly, stirring it constantly, on a low flame. VERY low flame!!!!! Add the seasonings and keep stirring. Use a clean spoon to taste the gravy to see if it needs more seasoning than the recipe calls for. The cracked black pepper that you have to grind yourself adds ginormous flavor to a cream gravy, and if the sausage is already seasoned, you may not want to add any salt. Gravy is always seasoned to taste. And Mrs. Dash has several blends that are salt-free and full of flavor.

Keeping the flame very, very low, return the cooked sausage (or pork) to the pan and stir it so that it is thoroughly mixed with the gravy.

I use canned flaky biscuits because it’s quicker than making them from scratch and some of them get buttered and swathed with strawberry jam.

If you didn’t fix the biscuits ahead of time, turn off the heat under the skillet and cover the gravy mixture, then follow the direction on the can.

If you did bake the biscuits ahead of time, then put two of them split in half on a plate and add a generous portion of sausage gravy to it. Add some strawberries or apple slices soaked in cider to the menu, on the side, and tuck in.

And since it’s what Chester used to call “soppy” on Gunsmoke, wear a big napkin.

Looks like I’m still on an apple kick. I guess it’s just that time of year, isn’t it? Apple cider should be available now. If you’re out working in the yard and come indoors to the scent of cider heating in a pan or a coffee pot, your house should smell like springtime. Those Granny Smiths are at least 3.25 inches across.

The snow picture is from April this year, just to remind you that Mother Nature has her own way of doing things and we are mere pawns in her chess game.

There used to be an apple-happy pig belonging to a farmer in Provence, in southern France. This particular porker was also quite a toper. His hobby was to find the apple trees with the ripest fruit – almost pure alcohol – and bang his porker head on the tree trunk until the apples fell. He would then indulge himself until he was stinking drunk and maudlin, and the farmer not only did not discourage him, but valued him as a prime truffle-hunting pig. One can only hope that his porker progeny were as successful!

In view of apples a-plenty, some of them the size of softballs, I am herewith providing you, my esteemed audience, with my Grandma Wiley’s recipe for Chopped Apple Cake. She also had an omigod!! pineapple upside down cake recipe. I will find that.

Chopped Apple Cake – Grandma Z. Wiley

2 cups brown sugar (light or dark)

2 cups water

1 cup shortening (butter is best)

1 cup seedless raisins (that’s the minimum; I usually use more)

2 cups chopped apples

2 tsp cinnamon

1 ½ tsp nutmeg

Cook above ingredients together about 20 minutes

Cool apple mixture and add the dry ingredients (below):

3 ½ cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

¾ cup chopped English walnuts or pecans (use more than 3/4 cup if you like)

Sift dry ingredients together, add nuts and mix thoroughly until the nuts are coated with the flour.

When the apple-raisin mix has cooled, add all the dry ingredients a bit at a time, mix thoroughly and bake in greased loaf pans which have been lined with waxed paper.  Batter will stick without the waxed paper lining the pan, even if greased and floured.

Oven temperature: 350° F for about an hour, or until a toothpick or spaghetti strand inserted in center comes out clean.  Remove from oven and put on a cooling rack or stovetop burner trivet.  Leave in loaf pan until it cools.  Does not need frosting. Will keep nicely in fridge or in the freezer. If you want to freeze it, slice it into portions and wrap them, then store in a freezer-friendly box.

Note: This can also be baked in an angel cake pan or a Bundt cake pan, but use waxed paper to line the greased pan.

Serve this delightful concoction with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream or just eat it plain. And load up on the nuts and raisins. You can, if you like, mix it up a bit by using both dark and golden raisins. And if your kids/grandkids don’t like it, that just leaves more for you.

Punkin says ‘Hi!’ and Happy Hallowe’en!